Automatic voter registration too late for Senedd poll

Automatic voter registration will not be introduced in time for next year's Senedd election, it has been confirmed.

The Welsh government had already warned its plan was unlikely to be ready in time for polling day on 7 May 2026, as originally intended.

A trial run by four councils added 14,500 voters to the register – between 2% to 8% of the register in each county.

Two of the councils registered about 1,500 people aged 14 and 15 who will become eligible to vote in Senedd and council elections when they turn 16.

The Electoral Reform Society called the delay "a missed opportunity" that was "really disappointing".

The UK government is also lowering the voting age to 16 for Westminster general elections.

Welsh Local Government Secretary Jayne Bryant said an evaluation of the pilot scheme found it "could make our democracy more accessible, particularly for young people and others who are currently under-represented on the register".

Automatic voter registration means people no longer have to register themselves before casting a vote in the area where they live.

The pilot scheme in Carmarthenshire, Gwynedd, Powys and Newport used existing information – including council tax and education data – to add names to the register.

Supporters of automatic registration were disappointed in July when First Minister Eluned Morgan said it would be a "tall order" to introduce the system before next May.

Confirmation of the delay means local elections in May 2027 are the next scheduled elections when automatic registration could be used.

Bryant said: "This is an important part of our commitment to ensuring that every eligible voter can actively participate in our democracy, and I would like to thank all four local authorities who took part in the pilots.

"We will now carefully consider the Electoral Commission's recommendations before making decisions on rolling this further out across Wales."

Jess Blair from the Electoral Reform Society Cymru described the delay as "a missed opportunity".

"I think it's really disappointing," she said.

"This is something that the Welsh government knew was coming - this election isn't going to be a surprise - and planning could have been put in place to ensure that automatic voter registration was in place for this election."

"It's a missed opportunity to not add thousands across the whole of Wales who could have participated in May's election."